Aethan, in the flesh, and not just in my dreams.
Tension I didn’t know I was holding, oozed out of my body. Relief flowed into the void left by that tension. Everything was better now. He was here.
Scruffy let out another bark and threw himself at Isla. She scooped him up and rubbed her fingers through the fur on his belly. ‘Yes, he’s in the field below,’ she said. ‘He misses you too.’ She bent and placed Scruffy on the ground, and with a quick lick of Wilfred’s leg he was off and running. I was guessing Arthur was waiting for him.
I gazed up at Aethan. Was it possible he was even better looking than he had been? He looked utterly biteable.
I didn’t know if I was ever going to get used to how perfect he was. Didn’t know if I was ever going to get used to the fact that he was mine.
‘Can we come in?’ Isla asked.
‘Of course.’ I stepped back, my eyes glued to Aethan’s face as they entered.
Navy-blue eyes, crinkled at the corner with amusement, met mine. ‘Hey, beautiful.’ He stepped close enough that I could feel the warmth of his body, but it wasn’t close enough by far.
‘Oh good. Just in time.’ Grams grabbed Aethan’s hand and dragged him into the lounge room. ‘What do you think? The black one, or the khaki one?’ She held up two balaclavas.
‘The khaki,’ he said. ‘It looks better with your shirt.’
‘See.’ She turned to Lionel and stuck out her tongue. ‘I told you the khaki looked better.’
I shook my head, smiling as I finished with my last dagger. My bag sat packed ready to go and my swords were…I looked around for them before remembering. They were still in my room. I trotted up the stairs and found them exactly where I had left them the night before when I had finished sharpening them. The battle the week before had left some serious nicks in them.
‘Happy birthday, Izzy.’ Strong hands grasped my waist and spun me. My breath left me as Aethan covered my mouth with his and slammed me up against the wall. Fingers, frantic with need, moved expertly over my skin leaving a fiery trail in their wake.
Happy birthday, indeed. I closed my eyes and breathed him in, revelling in the feel of our kiss. My hands moved over his back, kneading the muscles through his leather vest. It would be a matter of seconds to have that off.
He broke the kiss before I could start to shed his clothing, and instead, pressed his forehead to mine. ‘I missed you,’ he murmured. He pulled back and gazed into my eyes. ‘I missed you too much. I couldn’t concentrate on anything.’
‘Good.’ I trailed my fingers up and down his arms. ‘I’ve been totally useless.’
‘You could never be useless.’
I let out a chuckle. ‘I think Mum might disagree.’
We were silent for a minute while we soaked each other up. But all too soon, the questions that had been chasing each other around in my head demanded attention.
‘So,’ I looked down at my boots, ‘how did it go?’
He placed his hand under my chin and drew my head back up, tracing my lips with his fingertip as he replied. ‘Well.’
He bent to kiss me again but I put a hand on his chest.
‘Well?’ I arched an eyebrows at him and he let out a rueful chuckle. ‘You didn’t really think that would cut it did you?’ I asked.
‘Not with you.’ His finger recommenced its pattern on my lips. ‘She didn’t like it at first, but then Isla burst into flames and did that multiple voice thing. That pretty much settled it.’
I grimaced. I hadn’t really expected Aethan’s mother, Queen Eloise, to take the news of our relationship well. But a tiny part of me had been hoping, that after everything that had gone down, she might be receptive to something that made her son happy.
‘On the other hand, father was most supportive.’ He cleared his throat, his face suddenly not as confident as it had been. ‘He gave me something to give you.’
‘Really? What is it? Swords? I could do with a couple of new ones.’
‘Nothing like that.’ He shook his head, his eyes serious as they stared into mine. ‘I wanted to get you something nice for your birthday, and I still will. I just haven’t had time. I really wanted to make you something.’
‘Stop.’ I put a hand on his chest. ‘I don’t need a birthday present. I have you.’ That was the only thing I was ever going to need.
‘Still.’ He reached down and pulled a small box out of his pocket. ‘Isadora Scrumpleton,’ his voice was serious as he sunk to one knee in front of me, ‘will you do me the very great honour of becoming my wife.’ He flicked open the lid of the little box. A ring, with the largest diamond I had ever seen, sat nestled within a fold of velvet. ‘It’s the Gabrielle House ring.’
‘Wife?’ I choked out the word. It really was a very large diamond. I reached out a finger and poked it.
‘Yes, wife.’ Aethan stood up and pulled the ring from the box. ‘Izzy, I love you. I don’t want to spend another minute without you by my side. Say you’ll marry me. Please.’
My eyes flew to his face. ‘I love you too. More than anything in the world. I can’t imagine life without you.’
‘Then marry me.’
‘I’m only nineteen.’
‘Think you’re going to change your mind about me?’
‘Never.’ I shook my head frantically.
‘Then marry me.’ His voice had a pleading quality. ‘Say you’ll be mine.’
‘I am yours.’
‘Say it in front of everyone.’ He paused as his eyes dropped. ‘Say it in front of the royal court.’
‘Oh. Is that the deal?’ One second I had been resisting the idea of marriage, but now? Now that I knew it was to pacify his parents? Now I was disappointed.
He bent to capture my mouth again. ‘No,’ he murmured against my lips. ‘If I had my way, we would go far away. We would make a cottage in the woods somewhere, and we would live there forever. And you would be my wife, no matter what anybody else thought or said.’
I sagged against him, giving into his kiss.
‘Turos is here.’
I let out a squeal and spun toward Isla. Aethan snapped the ring box shut and stuffed it back into his pocket. I couldn’t see it any more, but I could feel its presence. An ominous pressure starting to pound away at the back of my head.
Married?
‘Don’t you ever knock?’ Aethan asked his sister.
‘Don’t need to. I always know what’s going on anyway.’ She let out a laugh and prodded him in the chest. ‘You will have plenty of time to finish your conversation later.’
A fiery warmth spread up my cheeks as I cringed.
I was blushing. Great. Now everyone would think we’d been caught doing something we shouldn’t. It was the last thing I needed Turos to see.
‘Come on Izzy.’ Isla grabbed my hand and dragged me from the room.
I looked back at Aethan as he picked up my swords and followed us.
Husband? I was still getting used to boyfriend.
Turos stood in the door to the kitchen talking to Mum. Mia was curled around his neck. At the sound of our footsteps she turned bright, blinking eyes toward us. She let out a mewl and stood up on her rear legs, reaching towards me with her front paws.
‘Hey, girl.’ I scooped her off Turos’s neck. ‘Hey, Turos.’
‘Hey, Izzy.’ He turned to face me, his eyes softening as they rested on my face. They hardened again as Aethan appeared at my side.
‘Turos.’ He nodded his head as he slipped an arm around my waist.
Ahhhh. Awkward. That was really awkward.
Turos nodded stiffly and turned back towards Mum. ‘Thank you Prunella. When we get back I’d love that,’ he said.
‘Love what?’ I stroked Mia’s belly as I wiggled out from Aethan’s arm and moved to Turos’s side.
‘Your Mum offered to teach me to bake.’
‘Oh.’ There was nothing much else I could say to that.
‘Let’s get this show on the road,’ G
rams said. ‘I’d like to be home in time for dinner.’
A nervous flutter started in my belly as I passed Mia back to Turos. I was going to try and open a gateway to Mia’s baby. It was a snatch and grab mission, and we really didn’t need this many people involved, but I hadn’t been able to say no.
Grams, Lionel, Thomas, Sabby, Isla, Wilfred, Aethan and Turos all moved to stand behind me. I took a deep breath and reached out toward Mia with my senses. If I could tap into her baby through her…
‘Please tell me you are not trying to open up a gateway in my kitchen.’
I opened my eyes and looked back at Mum. Technically, I was in the lounge, but I was guessing that now was not the time to quibble over that small detail.
‘Of course not. We’re going down to the field.’ I pulled a face at my friends and beckoned to the front door.
‘Really Prunella,’ Grams said, ‘as if we would do something like that.’
I was guessing by the look on Mum’s face, and the tapping of her left foot, that she wasn’t falling for it.
I took my swords from Aethan and slid them into the sheaths on my back, then I followed Grams out the front door.
Isla took the lead, skipping ahead of us to the path leading down to the meadow. She plucked a couple of flowers and pranced back to Wilfred, reaching up to thread them into his beard. He stood dutifully, still managing to look manly as she worked.
‘There,’ she said, ‘now you look like the proper consort for the Goddess of Love.’
‘So you’ve decided on love?’ Sabby asked.
‘I think so.’
‘Not too narrow a field?’ I asked.
She shook her head. ‘We’re not just talking about sexual love,’ she said. ‘It’s much broader than that. Love between friends, spouses, families,’ she looked at me and winked, ‘nations.’
I felt my mouth shape a soundless ‘Oh’. She was positioning herself to be a political force. The political force really. Who would say no to a Goddess? She outranked everyone.
She looked at Aethan and blew him a kiss. ‘So just you mind your p’s and q’s baby brother. I’ll be watching.’
Wilfred let out a booming chuckle, clasping her hand as he pulled her into him. He planted a kiss on her nose before spinning and sprinting off down the path. ‘Last one there’s a rotten egg,’ he yelled.
Isla let out a delighted laugh and raced off after him. By the time the rest of us reached them in the field she was threading more flowers into his beard.
‘Okay.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Everyone ready?’
I waited for them all to fall in behind me before sending my senses out to Mia. I brushed against her mind and she let out a chirrup, standing up on her hind legs and patting Turos’s face with her little paws.
‘It’s okay, girl,’ he said, stroking her back. ‘It’s just Izzy.’
She looked toward me and I nodded my head. ‘I need to use your connection to your baby so we can find her.’ I was guessing it was a girl.
She squatted back down, wrapping her tail more firmly around Turos’s neck.
This time when I connected, she sat still, her eyes fixed firmly on my face. I flowed into her and quested through her mind, reaching out for her child.
The trail was faint, a tenuous tug on my mind. I turned so it felt like a thread pulling from the middle of my chest, and then I rolled back the layers of reality between me and it.
We rushed through the gateway, spreading out with weapons ready to secure the area. Thomas ushered Sabby behind him with one arm as he fell in beside Turos.
A female goblin turned towards us. Her eyes were calm and her hands continued their task of pushing the needle and thread through the garment she was mending.
Apart from Galanta, I had never seen a female goblin. I had assumed they were all as fierce as she had been. I had been wrong.
This female wore a skirt and blouse and had her long, lustrous hair pulled up in a bun on the top of her head. She stood gracefully, turning to place her sewing on the chair. Then she beckoned and crossed the room to a hall that opened off it.
I looked at Isla as I chewed on my bottom lip. Was it a trap?
Isla nodded her head and gestured for me to follow. I sheathed one of my swords, I wasn’t trusting enough to sheath both, and followed her down the narrow hall. I could hear the others behind me.
The floors and walls of the structure were made of packed earth. Tree limbs supported a roof that also seemed to be made of dirt, but roots wound through this earth holding it all together. Lamps lit the room and hall.
I followed her down the hallway and then left into a room filled with natural light. On one side of the room, stairs led upwards. I followed the female up, my head swivelling from side-to-side as I searched for danger. She waited up the top, watching me with an amused look on her face.
Vines wound their way up wooden archways and flowers cascaded from above. Small vegetable patches were dotted throughout.
Mia let out a chitter. I turned to see her standing on her rear legs, one paw resting on Turos’s head. She bounced up and down and pointed with her free paw as she let out a mewing cry.
‘What is it, girl?’ he asked.
There was an answering mew from a stand of trees about a hundred feet away. Mia clambered up onto Turos’s head, a somewhat painful procedure for him I knew from experience. But he stood still as she propelled herself off, stretching her limbs out so her skin wings ballooned with air. She glided the distance to the trees, landing on a trunk and then scurrying up into the branches.
I tucked my remaining sword into its scabbard as we followed her. Aethan, Turos, Thomas, Lionel and Wilfred spread out around us, while Sabby, Grams, Isla and I peered up into the tree.
Mia clasped a half-grown narathymia to her side. She nuzzled the babe, snuffling all over its body as if searching for damage. Her child had its paws wrapped around her neck as it made little chuffing noises.
‘Oh,’ Sabby choked out. ‘That’s adorable.’
‘Cutest thing I ever saw,’ Grams agreed.
‘I looked after him as best I could.’
I spun to face the female goblin. She held a basket out towards me.
‘Just in case the mother can not produce milk. This will feed him for a few days until you can get more.’ Her accent was thick and her words clipped, but she spoke far better English than Galanta.
‘Thank you.’ I stepped forwards and took the basket from her. It held a dozen bottles of white liquid.
‘Sheep milk,’ she said. ‘Don’t give him cow’s. It will make him ill.’
‘Where did you get him from?’
‘My daughter. She had him in a cage. I asked her for him. A daughter should do what a mother asks.’ She shook her head. ‘That was the only thing I ever asked of her that she did.’
My eyes grew wide as I fought the urge to reach for my swords. ‘Your name?’ I whispered.
‘Brushenta. Mother of Galanta.’ Her eyes were solemn as they bore into mine. ‘I can not thank you for killing my daughter,’ she said, ‘but I can thank you for ending this war. We are not so different, your people and mine. Some of us thirst for violence, some of us want only peace.’
I opened my mouth to argue but shut it again. We had killed her daughter. Quibbling would have been callous.
‘She was not prophesised to be the great chief. Her child was.’ Brushenta sighed and shook her head. ‘She could not accept that that glory was not hers. And then He came, whispering dark thoughts into her mind.’
Isla’s glow increased as she drifted forwards. ‘We are sorry for your loss. Would you show us the child? I would like to bless him.’
I looked back at where Mia and her babe now sat on Turos’s shoulder. We already had the child.
Brushenta stared at Isla, uncertain for the first time since we had arrived, but she nodded once and turned back towards the staircase into her home.
We trailed behind her, following her back to where our gateway
still stood open.
‘You must promise you will not harm him.’
‘We promise,’ Isla said. ‘We would not harm a babe.’
Brushenta hesitated. She clenched and unclenched her fists as she ran her eyes over us. ‘She must also bless him.’ She pointed a finger at me. ‘He is of her blood.’
Isla nodded. ‘It will be done.’
The women nodded back and then darted into the hallway, in a hurry now that her mind was made up.
‘What in the Great Dark Sky is going on?’ I turned to Isla.
‘You’re about to meet your Uncle.’
When the female returned she held a wrapped bundle in her arms. Two little feet stuck out from the end of the swaddling.
A baby. She was holding a baby.
My mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.
Galanta had had a son. More importantly Galanta and Santanas had had a son.
I could hear the collective intake of breaths around me as everybody else finally caught up. This was the real reason Isla had come. To bless the baby. To hopefully sway him to a path of good and not evil.
‘May I?’ Isla held her hands out.
Brushenta nodded and placed the babe into Isla’s cradled arms.
Isla tucked the swaddling down till we could see his face. A strange mixture of blunt goblin and dainty faery features. ‘His name?’
‘Bulldar.’
Isla licked the base of her thumb and pressed it to Bulldar’s forehead. ‘I, Isla, Goddess of Love, anoint you and bless you, Bulldar. I will be watching over you as you grow, guiding you to a life filled with compassion and grace.’ She met my eyes, raising her eyebrows as she jerked her head.
I walked to her side, licked my thumb and pressed it to his forehead. ‘I, Isadora, War Faery and niece, anoint you and bless you, Bulldar. I will be watching over you as you grow, guiding you to a life filled with compassion and grace.’
I turned to find a queue forming behind me. One-by-one, the rest of our group took turns in blessing Bulldar.
When it was done, Isla handed him back to Brushenta. ‘You will allow me to visit?’
‘I would like that.’ The grandmother bowed her head. ‘It would be good for him to have wise council as he grows.’
Faery Revenge Page 43
